Planning routes with the route planner
Bikemap’s route editor allows you to create and edit cycle routes. In this article you will find detailed instructions on how to get the most out of this tool.
Basic Functions
Before we look at how you can create a route, you need to know the basic functions of the route planner. The different functions will be explained below.
1. Add Waypoint
This enables you to add another location to your route. You can move the waypoints around by dragging them in the list or delete them by pressing the minus on the right hand side.
2. Reverse Order
This reverses the route completely.
3. Choose Between Routing and Freehand Drawing
You can choose to either use the selected routing profile for drawing a route or the freehand tool which means you can draw directly from point to point (Useful for off-road sections).
4. Choose a Routing Profile
You can select a profile that the route will be optimized for. There are currently 8 options to choose from. You can find out more about them in this article.
5. Apply to Whole Route Toggle
Enable this to recalculate the entire route based on the selected routing option.
Disable this to prevent the recalculation of the entire route when selecting a different routing option. Only newly added or edited segments will have the routing option applied.
We recommend turning this is off if you are editing a route.
6. Save Route
This saves the route which you can then find in your profile under My Routes. This also allows you to: (for more info see this article on the route detail page)
- Change the name of the route
- Add photos
- Manage the privacy of your route (it is automatically set to private when you first create it)
- Share or embed the route (only possible when the route is public)
- Add a description
- Add bike and surface type
- Print route
- Download as GPX/KML file
- Add route to one of your collections
- Add Points of Interest
7. Menu
This brings up a handy menu where you can:
- Go to your routes
- Go to the discover page
- Go to your account settings
- Plan a new route
- Import a route
- Change the language
- Change the metrics
- Log out
- Send support a message
8. Zoom Buttons
This allows you to zoom in and out of the map.
9. Lock to North
This locks the view back to north facing.
10. Activate Current Location
Press this button to show your location with a blue marker on the map. Once it is activated, you can press it again to automatically set the map view back to your current location.
11. Map Settings
This opens up a menu where you can choose from 9 different map styles and toggle the global heatmap on/off.
12. Undo/Redo
This allows you to undo/redo the last action you took.
13. Dismiss Changes
This allows you to undo all the actions you just did.
Planning a Route
Drawing the route yourself
You can easily create your own route by drawing it with your mouse. Click any point on the map to mark the starting point of your route. Each click will then add another route point.
You can either draw using the selected routing profile or using the freehand method. The freehand tool will allow you to draw directly from point to point. This can be particularly useful for off-road sections.
The video below shows the basics of how to draw your own route.
1. Adding Waypoints
As seen in the above video, you can add fixed waypoints (if you specifically want to mark a location) to the route by right clicking and pressing either Set Destination or Add to Route.
2. Deleting Waypoints/Control Points
You can delete control points (the white dots) by clicking them. To delete waypoints you have to click and then press Remove Waypoint
3. Refining by Dragging the Route Line
You can also drag the route line at any point to refine the path you take and change a specific portion of the route. In order to do this, before dragging you should click on the line to create control points (the white dots). Then when dragging the line, only the specific segment between two control points will be moved.
4. Creating a Loop Route
You can easily create a round trip by clicking on either the end or start point and pressing Back to Starting Point or Create Roundtrip
Planning an A to B route
If you want to keep it simple and let us do all the heavy lifting for you, you can plan a simple A to B route. Begin by entering a start and end location in the box on the left hand side as shown in the video. You can also automatically use your current location as a start/end point by pressing the corresponding button.
Once you've created your route, you can personalise it even further by:
- Replacing the start/end point
- Changing the routing profile
- Adding waypoints
- Reversing the route
Those are the basics of planning. Read more about editing your created route here.